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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Tayo Bero

Instagram keeps flubbing on teen safety. Will its new ‘PG-13’ guidelines make a difference?

Hands on phone with social media apps
‘Instagram has had years to get this right.’ Photograph: Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

For months, Instagram has been struggling to convince parents, advocates and officials that it’s a safe place for kids, even though there’s a mountain of evidence to show quite the opposite. Now, the company is introducing yet another set of guardrails that will supposedly keep teens on the platform safe. But going by their track record, parents shouldn’t be smiling yet.

Starting this week, all users aged under 18 will automatically be placed into the 13+ setting, which restricts their feed to content that meets the standards of the US PG-13 movie rating.

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